KEYS TO SUCCESS- Goaltending: The Lakers have won with a one-goalie system. They also have won with platoons in net. Junior Amanada Makela has the most experience, but coach Michael Sisti is high on sophomore Julia DiTondo and freshman Sara Besseling.- Special teams: The Lakers have been among the best teams nationally on the power play and penalty kill every year. With Christine Bestland, Shelby Bram and Emily Janiga leading the way up front, as well as Molly Byrne and Caroline Luczak on the blue line, the Lakers should be strong in those areas again.- Consistent focus: The Lakers have experienced the occasional slip-up against inferior teams. As usual, they can't have too many of them, since College Hockey America doesn't earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I playoffs until next season.

Michael Sisti and his Mercyhurst women's hockey team view every opponent on their schedule as a challenge.

In some cases, they are challenging.

They open the 2013-14 season this weekend at Minnesota State Mankato, which nearly swept a two-game series out there two years ago. They face two ranked teams -- a two-game series at Clarkson Oct. 18-19 and two games with Cornell Jan. 10-11 at Mercyhurst Ice Center.

The Lakers face Ohio State, which received votes in the initial USCHO.com Division I poll, in their home opener Oct. 5. College Hockey America rival Robert Morris has given the Lakers trouble the past couple of years. Unranked St. Lawrence also should give them a good test in a two-game series in Erie Nov. 26-27.

But after those 13 games, which teams on the 33-game schedule will give the Lakers the battles they need to prepare for the postseason?

Providence? The Lakers have won four straight meetings with the Friars by a combined 19-3 score. Maine? The Black Bears had a 5-24-4 record a season ago.

Syracuse? The Orange are winless in 23 career meetings with the Lakers. The rest of the CHA? Lindenwood, Penn State and Rochester Institute of Technology finished last season with a combined 30-68-10 record. Lindenwood begins only its third year in NCAA Division I. Penn State and RIT joined D-I last year.

So expect the Lakers to win at least 25 games for the seventh time in eight years and 13th time in 15 seasons under Sisti, the only coach in program history.

And expect that win total to be enough for the Lakers to extend their record of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances to nine in March.

Then expect the Lakers to face their toughest opponents of the season in the national playoffs. That's a problem, and it has kept Mercyhurst from adding its first national championship in women's hockey to its already rich history.

The Lakers roll through the competition every year. They also rebound quickly from the occasional hiccup, often against less skilled and experienced teams. But there are no inferior teams at tournament time. These teams are just as good, if not better.

That's when the Lakers could run into Wisconsin and Minnesota, who have won a combined eight national championships and headline a conference -- the WCHA -- that has claimed all 13 titles in the sport's history.

Then there's schools like Boston College, Boston University and Cornell, which have grown into perennial title contenders in recent years.

Except for Clarkson and Cornell, as well as four games with BC the past two seasons, the Lakers haven't consistently played these high-profile schools in the regular season.

So, perhaps, the Lakers aren't as ready to face that level of competition as they expect to be.

Don't blame Sisti for this. He will play any school anytime and anywhere. But the Lakers can't beat any school anytime and anywhere.

Schools from the WCHA, Hockey East and ECAC, which already play a difficult conference schedule, might choose to shy away from playing the Lakers in non-conference games.